Policy update – funding

By Stan Keasling, RCAC chief executive officer

Well, the Grinch did not steal Christmas this year. In spite of the President throwing down the gauntlet on immigration, the House and Senate moved ahead with a full year Omnibus Appropriations Bill … Read more>>>

Is there room for veterans in self-help?

By Elizabeth Zach, RCAC staff writer and Angela Sisco, RCAC rural development specialist

Among homeless Americans, one group can report some good news this holiday season-veterans. The number of homeless veterans is on the decline. And yet, their numbers are still alarmingly high enough that President Obama has said – and the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs claims it’s a priority … Read more >>>

And the award goes to …

By Carol Cohen, RCAC rural development specialist

The Housing Assistance Council (HAC) Rural Housing Awards banquet was an especially festive night for two western grantees, Brad Bishop of Self Help Homes in Provo, Utah, and Martha Mendez of Coachella Valley Housing Coalition in Indio, Calif. Read more >>>

Dear Sher,

Our Rural Development office requires us to sign USDA Form RD 1924-19, Builder’s Warranty, on each home at completion of the self-help projects. I tried to fight that the first year as we are technically not considered the builder-but I have been signing them because that is what they require. Sincerely, Worried about warranties – Read more >>>

New SHARES feature will save you time

By Nancy Jacobsen, RCAC Rural Development Specialist

We now have a new streamlined approach to printing out SHARES reports. Thanks to Jason Stillwell of Little Dixie, you can now set your Excel program to automatically format your SHARES reports … Read more >>

Save the date

The T&MA Contractors are presenting a national USDA Mutual Self-Help Housing Conference July 21 – 23, 2015 in San Antonio, Texas to commemorate 50 years of self-help housing and building 50,000 homes!

We look forward to seeing you in San Antonio!

Announcements

Good news! Listserv for 502 program updates.

The Single Family Housing Direct Loan Division now has a Listserv available for you to receive program updates. Click here, check the box “SFH Direct Loan and Grant Programs” (as well as any other programs of interest) and then select “Subscribe” at the bottom of the page.

RCAC lowers interest rates by 0.5%

In an ongoing effort to serve communities and nonprofit affordable housing developers, effective immediately, RCAC’s Loan Fund has reduced short-term interest rates by 0.5 percent. New rates are 5 percent for a two-year loan, 5.25 percent for a three-year loan. In addition, for all new loans committed before Jan. 31, 2015, we will further reduce the rate by another 0.25 percent for the first 18 months of the loan.

For more information, contact Michael Carroll – director, Lending & Housing at mcarroll@rcac.org, or call (916) 447-2854 ext. 1003.

RCAC’s Self-Help Builder News is funded by USDA Rural Development

The newsletter is published quarterly for the western region self-help network at no cost to subscribers. We encourage correspondence and contributions.

Stanley Keasling, Chief Executive Officer

Angela Sisco, Executive Editor
asisco@rcac.org

Sharon Wills, Managing Editor
swills@rcac.org

Editorial office, West Sacramento, CA (916) 447-2854